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Writing Stuff
You know, I'd like to write something a little happier. Let's be a little less depressing. Keep my mind off of stuff, you know. Let's talk about writing. Maybe we can ask some questions, get some answers to help me figure things out a little more. People have wondered a lot about my processes in writing - why I end up liking and utilizing certain tropes. And, because it's always useful to have some kind of reference, I thought that it would be a good idea to come up with some answers. And, for many of these questions, it's also going to be an answer for myself as well as I've never really bothered to answer them for myself before. Question #1: "Why are most of your characters children?" Whether it be Growing Around, Young Commando, Eden of the Stars or several other ideas that you haven't heard about, it seems that most of my main characters are children. There are usually practical reasons for this - the product is aimed at a child audience, it's plot relevant that the character must be a child, as with Eden of the Stars (I'll explain this later). Practically, it makes it easier to write fantasy or other speculative fiction. There are more "acceptable" ways to explain the world to this character, and by extension the audience, because, by virtue of being a child, they don't know the reason either. But let's talk about beyond practicality. A lot of it is a bizarre kind of nostalgia, I guess. Writing kids doing kid-things is one way to help me recapture my own childhood. On the opposite side of the spectrum, a lot of what I write when I use a child audience is how fantastical I wish my own childhood was. I am more experienced with the trials and tribulations of childhood than adulthood, or even adolescence (I really don't like writing teenagers, by the way). While writing for children, you are allowed to me more fanciful with your fantasy, for lack of a better term. For example, I don't think you could write Harry Potter as a book strictly for adults, without making it extremely disturbing. In Goosebumps, the monsters don't need a reason for being, they just are. That is a very liberating thing for a writer - and one of the reasons I've never felt the need to explain the background to the world of Growing Around (that compounded with the fact that any explanation I can come up with will not be good enough). Question #2: "Why are most of your main characters female?" You may remember me saying in my Beginner's Guide review that I prefer to write female characters. I don't have an answer to this question, sorry. Sometimes it's simply just preference. I mean, I could talk about how writing a female character is different than writing a male character. Okay... when you write a female character, they will be criticized heavily by everyone for every quality and feature that they have (or don't have). There will constantly be accusations of objectification, or making a bad role model, or something else along those lines. And this has literally nothing to do with why I write female characters. In fact, I actively ignore that kind of criticism, as it's the only way to write a good character in general. You've got to let the character be themselves. Its not like I don't have several... million plots planned where the main character is a male. Sometimes it's plot-relevant and sometimes it's incidental. I don't think this question really has an answer, and I don't think this question needs an answer. Question #3: "What is a topic you'll never write about?" I don't think that there really is a limit on this one. I've written about a lot of things, like abuse, suicide, attempted murder. Honestly, one of my favorite genres used to be supernatural horror. Hellspawn for instance has a teenage girl being psychologically abused by a monster, there's enough gore, it opens right after the teenager apparently murdered her mother, and she eats a dog right after brutally killing it. I guess, I'm not too into writing sexual scenes. I find the whole thing squicky. On a practical level, there really is no good way to describe sex that doesn't make it sound... cartoonish, unless you only talk about emotions and thoughts instead of actual actions. Also, you never escape the feeling that one day everyone in your family (especially the older members) will see what you have written. Which sounds... awkward as fuck. But who knows, I like to push my limits. Question #4: "What are your favorite/least favorite environments to write about?" I'll start with my least favorite because that's simple - wintry environments. Yeah, snowy villages and mountains - the things that have inspired poets and artists for millennia is always my most hated thing to describe. I hate the cold in real life, and it's hard to describe beyond a stinging sensation. The environment? It's white. There are pine trees. Maybe a wolf howls. Boom. That's all I got. I've had to abandon projects because I made the mistake of making our intrepid heroes cross the tundra. And I don't have this effect with similarly sparse environments, like a boat on the ocean or an immense desert, either. It's strange. Favorite environment? Hmmm... I love writing about cities, especially futuristic ones. Happy futuristic ones. Actually, no, I enjoy writing dystopic futuristic cities as well. But a lot of it is the bright lights, and high energy. In positive future cities, you've just got this wonderful sense of optimism that comes from the environment itself, like things will turn out alright. Post-apocalyptic ruins of said cities are also fun too. Just big cities in general - whether fantasy, scifi, or even in our plain reality. Unless it's snowing in the city. Question #5: "Do you listen to music while writing, and if yes, which kinds?" Yes of course. If I didn't, the silence would probably be maddening. Well, let's see on the types. If I'm writing a battle scene, I listen to Dragonforce. If I am writing space, existentialism, or awe, I listen to the song "Forever Young" by Alphaville (on loop). What I am writing dictates what I am listening to. Like... the soundtrack to the movie version of the book if it could have anything to it. I usually always listen to lyrical music because lyrics make me feel more like writing (I don't get it either). And I have the uncanny ability to listen to a song on loop for ten hours and not get annoyed by it. So, while I'm writing about our characters on a boat for an entire novel, the song I will mostly be listening to is "Downeaster Alexa." The whole. Damn. Time. Question #6: "Any themes you like to explore?" I love to explore existential themes in my works, and I ponder moral quandaries all the time, where some entire works are just meant to be explorations to answer a philosophical or a moral question. This coincidentally enough leads to robots, a lot. A man creates a robot. He's disgusted by people using other robots for just doing work, house duties, sex, or other things. So, he gives the robot free will, at least in theory. He doesn't give the robot a purpose. And this causes the robot to freak out and get angry because she wasn't given a purpose. But it doesn't lead to just robots. It leads to other kinds of "pseudo life." So, a man starts seeing a hallucination because . She has thoughts, opinions, and fears. For all intents and purposes, the work paints her as sentient (self-aware) and sapient (wise to right and wrong). And one of her bigger fears is being destroyed. And this is my idea of a love story, so... I'm weird. Gonna be the weirdest ever love triangle, that's for damn sure. Eden of the Stars is a work that I don't think I'll finish, not any time soon, so I think I'll just reveal everything right now. It's about a young girl who finds herself kidnapped by aliens. You've seen the chapter where she's abducted. However, when she returns to what she thinks is Earth it's all quirky and weird and not quite right (think that Rick & Morty episode with the computer simulated universe). It turns out that Eden is in an alien zoo. The aliens conquered and destroyed the earth when Eden was just born. And the aliens offered her (and several other) parents a deal - they'd give up some of earth's defenses to make their job easier, and the aliens would provide safe haven for their children for all of their lives. And the novel, more-or-less starts where it ends. Eden doesn't escape. There is no earth to return to. Her real parents are dead. My favorite kind of ending is a special kind of ambiguous. I give the reader/player/watcher all ''of the information. There is nothing they don't know about. However, I don't tell them if it's a good thing or a bad thing. Girl is trapped in an alien zoo. She probably would have been dead if her parents didn't make another choice. Is this a happy ending? The story about the hallucination ends on a similar "is this a happy ending" note, but it's only really effective through execution. I mean, telling you that she acts and thinks human doesn't go really far, does it? And you've probably noticed several other of my common themes. Learning that the world isn't what you previously expected - sometimes in a good way, and sometimes in a bad way. Sometimes I like writing about social issues. Although it's more of a compulsion than any real desire, and a way of getting out my frustration. And those stories are very tempting to just have me... drop any pretense of a story to just start saying things, and that gets annoying. ''Alone Together for instance, quickly became tedious and annoying for me to write. Every line felt risky and shaky, and I just had to stop. Question #7 "What's the Favorite Thing You've Ever Written?" The answer fluctuates all the time. But, let's go over my favorites right now, shall we? My favorite review that I've done is the most recent one, Top 20 Worst Opening Themes. My favorite Growing Around episodes are Attack of the Chameleon, Picture Day, Mind Games, Opposite Day, ''and ''How I Spent My Summerway Vacation. Odd how there's no way I can use Mind Games in the novel. Opposite Day could sustain a sequel novel all on its own. I'd need a crowbar or sledgehammer to fit in How I Spent My Summerway Vacation. And Attack of the Chameleon ''and ''Picture Day can only really have minor roles, at best. But honestly, I think it might be Hellspawn. Maybe that's why it's been so hard for me to follow it up on anything. You know? I wrote it with no planning, no direction. Just an idea. There was this demon... that possessed this girl. It's territorial. She's a danger, but she's not at fault. Let's go. Question #8: "What's your Writing Process?" You want to know how I'm writing the Growing Around novel? Okay, let's transcribe as much of this episode that fits as possible. Okay, which episode closest fits in? That one. Okay, let's repeat the process. This is very simplified, as there's more to it. I don't often write in a consistent way - however, I personally (and I don't recommend this) avoid meticulous plotting. Let me explain. If I write down all of the plot, and everything that's in it, it feels like the story is already written. All of the interesting parts anyway. Everything else is just boring. I do not think that I could finish a work where everything is set out before me. Anything that I've ever finished was rarely plotted from the beginning. I tend to write by the seat of my pants. Not to say that spontaneity dictates the plot. I've always got an idea of how I want it to end, and the adventure is getting from point a to point b. And I do have ideas of what happens in the middle. Yes, this style of writing obviously has its weaknesses. Most writing processes have some kind of weakness. This is why we rewrite and rewrite and rewrite. Question #9: "So why didn't you ever explain Growing Around's backstory?" Because there's no way to satisfy the people who are asking, and satisfy the world that the work takes place in. "The adults were ruling foolishly, but the kids managed to figure out a problem that the adults could not solve and they were given control" - this explanation, fitting tonally doesn't give these people what they're looking for: an added bit of realism. "Adults pushed kids too far, and there was a rebellion" - this explanation gives these people what they're looking for, but doesn't fit tonally. "There's an international conspiracy keeping kids in control, because kids are easier to control, and it helps them stay in power" - this isn't logical or fit tonally. I came up with a lot of concepts like that and they all had similar problems. None of the answers were satisfactory. None to me, at least. However, a lot of the demand was my fault. I wrote things too close to reality. I'm not talking about fairy magic or anything, but I didn't distance the world of Growing Around enough from the real world. Which I'm going to have to do for the novel. Yes, it sounds amazingly counter-intuitive, but it's a problem that can easily be fixed. And who knows, I might find a way to explain it very well. But if I wanted to write uber-realistic, I would. Hell, after this, I might write a story where some chicken pox virus mutates and kills all of the adults on the planet, or leaves them in a crippled state, allowing kids realistically to take over. And it'll just be like Lord of the Flies, and it'll be just like Gone, and it'll be just like The Tribe, and it'll be just like The Girl Who Owned a City, and it'll be just like Kidsworld and it'll be just like Children of the Corn. Yes, I know I'm risking an appeal to the square wheel fallacy (being different for the sake of being different, even if the old formula/design is why it worked) but I'd like to... you know, do something a little different. A heavily pessimistic dark gritty realistic take on this idea has been done. A lot. I know I have a reputation for not listening to criticism, but sometimes I have legitimate reasons for not listening to them. I might not be right, but these are my arguments. Question #10: "Are there any tropes you will avoid using at any cost?" Never going to write an idiot father/dumbass dad/bumbling dad/whatever you call it. Never, never, never, never, never, never. They might have a stupid moment or idea, but stupidity will not be their defining trait. Ever. Even when I write abusive parents, they're not going to be idiots either (that makes them scarier anyway). When I'm not writing flat out abusive parents, most of the parents in my works tend to be kind of idealized, I'd admit. But these stupid dysfunctional egotistical assholes that you see on every sitcom and commercial ever really test my patience. About 30-40 years ago, these were a response to well... idealized parents, and so things like the Simpsons became parodies of them. Which became staples. Which became even further flanderized stereotypes of themselves. Which then became staples. And the only funny thing is that these tropes were originally only funny because they were a fresh subversion on what was currently normal. I hate writing unhappy families in general. Maybe it's my own past experience, or maybe it's something else. While I have and can continue to write pessimistic works, I feel better when I write about more optimistic things. Not that the whole book has to be happy-go-lucky, but I like an uplifting ending. The eternal message that things get better. Other than that, I'll definitely use tropes that I personally don't like. To lampshade them, to make fun of them, to subvert them, to break them down. It is an immensely satisfying exercise. Question #11: "What's your favorite character you've written so far?" That's... a tough question. I don't know if I've made a character that sticks with others like Recette or House or jeeze, anyone from Undertale sticks with me. But that's not the question, isn't it? There are a few answers. Jack, from Alone Together, for reasons that I haven't conveyed. Eden from Eden of the Stars that I haven't yet conveyed. Grace, from Alone Together, for reasons that I haven't yet conveyed. Julie, from Alone Together because... well everyone loves her. And besides, Sally from Growing Around, she's the most fun I've had writing a character.But no, I think for reasons that I can go into detail with is Talula from Growing Around. She is my favorite character from the series. She was originally meant to be a parody of your typical mean girl that you'd find in a closer-to-reality show like this. Let's talk about what I like in characters. First of all, I tend to like villains more than heroes. And my favorite "heroes" aren't exactly... virtuous, like House M.D. for instance. Why? Well first of all, they usually have access to a lot more power. I mean, that can be anything from a lot of physical or magical power to a lot of rulership power. This makes them fun to watch, but especially fun to write or create. One thing that I'm really attracted to is the antagonist that's wiser than the protagonist though. I don't think we see this enough. Sure we've got many villains that can physically overpower their opponent. Sometimes they're even smarter. But being more wise is rare for the villain or antagonist, unless you know, they're like a god or something. The reason for this is simple. Wiser characters tend not to be villains - it's a trait that's usually used for the mentor. Talula is an anti-villain. She wants to stay in power and she'll do anything to do that - through bullying, demonization, fighting, anything that it takes. However, she's a good mayor (when she's not being provoked) and she (not without reason) believes that Sally (or any competitor really) would probably beat her in a fair election. I don't want to spoil certain scenes in the book - which I'm making from whole cloth - so I won't go into too much detail. But in the book, I'm having a lot of fun writing her mannerisms and her body language. Also, she's a tragic character so there's fun to that. Question #12: "What do you most want to accomplish in writing?" I want to actually finish something right now. Not just write it and forget about it, like Little Cassie. But actually FINISH it, through rewrites and such. I want to create a cast of characters with such resonance with the audience that they have a hard time picking their favorite. It's really hard to tell. Most of my writing experience isn't "what I want to accomplish" but more "what I want to do." Like... I want to write something set in the future. That's not an accomplishment, that's just a thing. -Well that's all I got- If you guys have more questions for me, I might do this again. But now, I've got to write that GA novelization. I've also got to review "Painbow" from Powerpuff Girls 2016. Yes, that's the episode I'm doing. Category:Miscellaneous